Convenience stores

[Margaret Blankenship]

>From: Jan <kf0z at N0RXD.AMPR.ORG>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Convenience stores
>Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 15:46:16 -0500
>
>In Iowa (where you can not only pump your own gas, but set the little
>catches
>so it pumps itself while you're cleaning the windshield, etc., something
>I missed badly while traveling in NH? IL? KY? (can't remember, but you
>couldn't do it there), there is a convergence between service/gas stations
>and convenience stores. It is getting hard to find gas pumps here that do
>not also have a convenience store (whether or not you pay with a credit
>card at the pump or go inside to do so). Distinctions between the two
>are blurring. I'm sure this is much more general. Just as I'm sure that
>there are three times more of these things than anyone needs. Most often
>they seem to be called "convenience stores" (yawn), but gas station or
>service station would be readily understood and the dying "filling station"
>even though these places have few or no services, and what we understood
>by gas station in the 50's in southern California are exeedingly few and
>far between. -Jan

I was reading about the "Convenience store/Gas Station" phenomena and I
thought about when I was younger, and when you stopped to get gas. A service
attendant would pump the gas, clean your windows, and take your money. You
never had to exit your vehicle if you did not want to. It was about a couple
months ago when I stopped for gas and I started to exit my car when a nice
elderly gentleman approached the car and said "How much?" It completely took
me by surprise. They're are very few of the "old filling stations". So Jan I
have say you are quite right, they are very "few and far between". My hat
goes off to the dying breed of service staion attendants.
Maggie


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